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Roberto Vives enters his 22nd season as the director of UAlbany’s track & field and cross country programs. In that period, Vives has coached 132 All-America athletes and 14 individual NCAA champions. Eight of his athletes have been inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, the most recent being Xiomara Davila Diaz, Kimberly Toone and Bill Vanos, all in 2004. He works with the program’s sprinters, hurdlers and mid-distance runners. Vives has led UAlbany to 30 conference championships and four New York State titles. Last season, the Great Danes’ men’s team won both the America East Conference indoor and outdoor championships, while the women’s team won the outdoor championship and finished second at the indoor meet. It was the sixth conference championship for the men’s teams, and the first for the women’s team. In addition, three UAlbany track & field athletes were named NCAA All-Americans, the first Great Danes to receive the honors at the Division I level: Gered Burns in the 800-meters during the indoor season, and Marc Pallozzi in the javelin and Joe Greene in the 400-meter hurdles during the outdoor season. Senior Andy Allstadt, who won the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs at the America East indoor meet, was named the conference’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The 2006 season also saw 30 new records broken from their 2005 marks. Vives has also coached five Junior National All-Americans. Freshman Joe Greene finished second in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 50.70 seconds at the USA Junior Track & Field Championships in June 2006. Greene’s performance qualified him to compete at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China, from August 15-20. Freshman Jenna Ortman earned All-America honors by placing third in the 1,500-meter run at the USA Junior Track & Field meet, while Jessica Ortman was named an All-American by placing fourth in the women’s 800-meter run, shattering her own school record with a time of 2:06.94. Ryan Gaedje was seventh in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 2005, and Alyssa Lotmore placed eighth in the 1,500-meter run in 2004. Vives was an administrator and coach at the U.S. Olympic Festival in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Vives also served as CTC President and as the USAT&F East Men’s Development Chair. Vives began his coaching career at the age of 14 when he founded the Bronx International Athletic Club (BIAC) in the south Bronx, N.Y. The BIAC grew to include 200 members and helped produce six Olympians. He was an assistant coach during his senior year at Cardinal Hayes High School, where he worked with the Catholic High School city champion in the indoor 300-yard dash and the outdoor long jump. Following graduation from Cardinal Hayes, Vives attended Seton Hall University, where he was a Dean’s List student and a member of the track and field team. He earned a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation from Seton Hall in 1978 and later received a master’s degree in health education from City College of New York. As an athlete, Vives competed in the high hurdles, high jump, relays and the decathlon. He was the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Junior Metropolitan high hurdle champion in 1978. Vives, who is a certified Taekwondo Karate Instructor and holds a second-degree black belt, was the 110-meter hurdles masters champion at the 1991 & 1999 Empire State Games. Vives returned to Cardinal Hayes in 1979 as head track and field coach. He spent three years at his alma mater prior to his appointment as boys’ track and field coach at Bronx High School of Science, a position he held until moving to UAlbany in the fall of 1985. Vives also coached one season at Lehman University. He and his wife, Valrene, have two children, Andres (22) and Ashley (20), a sprinter on the UAlbany women’s team.
Craig McVey enters his tenth year as UAlbany’s associate head track and field coach, where he works with the program’s distance runners and pole vaulters. UAlbany’s distance runners have helped to claim the university’s multiple men’s indoor and outdoor America East track and field championships, along with the first women’s A-East track and field championship in school history in 2006. McVey’s athletes have established numerous IC4A/ECAC indoor/outdoor qualifying marks, garnering All-East honors and meeting NCAA East Regional standards. During McVey’s tenure, the school’s 8,000-meter record was posted by Robbie Freeman in 2004. Freeman became UAlbany’s first-ever IC4A cross country champion in the same season. UAlbany’s women’s squad has also seen marks fall. Senior Alyssa Lotmore eclipsed the 6,000-meter record multiple times, currently standing at 22:06.6, and posted the top finish at a NCAA women’s regional meet by a Great Dane, finishing 39th in 2004. Several school records in the men’s 3,000 have been established by the distance team, while five of the top six all-time UAlbany times in the men’s steeplechase have been posted by current assistant Chris Pierson. Great Danes’ runners have won back-to-back 5,000-meter titles (Freeman in 2005 and Andy Allstadt in 2006), while Allstadt won the 2006 3,000-meter indoor title and was named to ESPN The Magazine’s All-America men’s track and field second team. Allstadt was also awarded UAlbany’s Presidential Scholar-Athlete Award, given to the senior male student-athlete with the highest GPA, and received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, awarded to 174 student-athletes who have received distinction on and off the playing field. While an undergraduate at Kansas State University, McVey was a member of two Big Eight Conference indoor championship teams and a Big Eight cross country championship team. McVey began his collegiate coaching career at KSU in 1983. In 1988, McVey became head men’s and women’s cross country and track coach at Hartwick College. His teams eclipsed 83 school records in six years and produced NCAA All-Americans and 22 New York Collegiate individual champions. A native of Manhattan, Kansas, McVey has been recognized as a four-time regional coach of the year. McVey received a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Kansas State in 1979 and earned his master’s degree from the same institution in 1985. He and his wife, Bette, reside in Guilderland with their children, Luke (16), Kirsten (12), Maggie (11) and Tyler (5).
David Herrington enters his 11th year as an assistant coach at UAlbany. After serving as the throwing coach for the Great Danes for several years, Herrington is now the team’s assistant strength and conditioning coach. Herrington began coaching in 1969 at Lea College before moving on to form the women’s track club at Springfield College, which later became a varsity team. He was also head cross country and track coach at Hartwick College from 1977-88 and coached at Union College from 1989-92. Herrington has been involved with the Empire State Games since 1976 and is a Level II certificate and USAT&F Lead Instructor. Herrington is a 1972 graduate of Lea, and also earned a master’s degree in education from Springfield in 1974.
Richard O’Riley begins his fourth year on the UAlbany staff as assistant jumps coach. This season, he will also coach the sprint hurdlers. He serves as Associate Vice President for USA Track & Field’s Adirondack Association and is a nationally certified Level I jumps coach. Most recently, he successfully organized the third year of indoor developmental meets held at UAlbany. As a member of the UAlbany track and field team, O’Riley was an all-conference perfomer in the hurdles and jumps. He won conference titles in the long and triple jumps in 1997 and has personal-best marks of 23’8.5" (long jump, 2000) and 48’7" (triple jump, 1997). In high school, O’Riley was an all-state performer and set a Section V record in the indoor hurdles. He also has won two bronze medals in Empire State Games competition. O’Riley graduated from the University at Albany in 2002, earning a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Latin-American/Caribbean Studies. In 2003, he earned a master’s degree in education from the College of Saint Rose. O’Riley currently works as a high school Spanish teacher at Averill Park High School.
As a member of the Great Danes’ cross country and track and field programs, Pierson achieved All-East honors in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2005 IC4A Championship and finished 10th at the NCAA East Regionals in that event in May 2005. His time of 8:59.68 in the event at the IC4A Championship was the second-best in UAlbany history. Pierson owns the second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-best times in UAlbany school history in the steeplechase. Pearson won the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 2005 Empire State Games, and was also a 2003 All-East selection in cross country. A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Pierson received a degree in criminal justice from UAlbany in May 2005.
Nadir Simohamed begins his third season as the jumps coach at UAlbany. The Algiers, Algeria, native arrived in the Capital Region in 1997 after spending six years as both an athlete and coach of the Southwest Texas State University track & field team. Simohamed represented Algeria at the World Junior Championships in Sudbury, Ontario, in 1988. He later won the Algerian Long Jump National Championship in 1990 and participated in area championships and international competitions in Europe. As a collegiate athlete at Southwest Texas State, he was awarded academic-athletic honors in 1991 and earned All-Southland Conference accolades in 1992. A three-year letterwinner at Southwest Texas State, Simohamed still ranks among the school’s career leaders in the long jump, triple jump and sprint relay events. From 2002 to 2004, he guided state and national high school talent Felipe Reyes to four-time All-America status. Simohamed earned his bachelor’s degree in computer information systems in 1996 and works as a consultant in New York State. He also holds a coaching certification from USAT&F. Todd Wolin enters his first year as UAlbany’s high jump, multi-events and throws coach. In addition, he serves as the recruiting coordinator for the program. Wolin comes to UAlbany after coaching track & field and cross country at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, N.Y., since 1991. Named the Nassau County winter and spring track coach of the year twice, his squads were county champions five times. He has coached five high school All-Americans and over 30 nationally-ranked athletes in 19 different events. He was also the head track & field coach of the U.S. junior track & field team at the 2005 World Maccabiah Games, as well as the assistant track and field coach for the United States Para-Olympic Track Team from 1992 to 2000. Wolin coached the Long Island Region women’s track and field team at the Empire State Games from 2004 to 2006, and was the team’s high jump/pole vault coach from 1989 to 2003. Wolin received his bachelor’s degree in food systems management from Eastern Michigan University in 1988 and his master’s degree in special education from Long Island University in 1995.
A former UAlbany record holder in the 400-meter hurdles, Gaynor is in his sixth year with the program. He was also a member of the 4x400 relay that won the NYS title and achieved All-America status in 1987. The team took the top spot at the Penn Relays that year. Previously a high jump and multi-event coach, Gaynor’s athletes won five America East Conference individual honors and set three school records. Prior to coming to Albany, Gaynor served as a head and assistant coach at Averill Park High School for 11 years. He graduated from UAlbany with a bachelor’s degree in political science and urban planning in 1989, and earned a master’s degree in education from the University of Rochester in 1991. Gaynor lives in Guilderland, N.Y., with his two children, Jackson (12) and Adam (9).
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